You could say she asked for it

Oscar Wilde's version of Salome, refashioned as opera by Richard Strauss, is a biblical tale that can still shock, writes Robin Usher.

Opera is renowned for its confusing narratives but this is not the case with Salome, whose theme could not be clearer - sex and the older man. Perhaps it could be sex and the older men, since the adolescent Salome uses the fate of the imprisoned John the Baptist to tantalise her stepfather, Herod.

The scandalous Oscar Wilde wrote the play and Richard Strauss created a sensation when his operatic version premiered in Dresden in 1905.

Both Wilde and Strauss were criticised and the opera was broadly rejected at first because of the "immorality" of its theme, but quickly became popular.

Nearly one hundred years on, it's an established part of the repertoire, but the explicitness of its subject matter has not changed - the last 90 minutes of a 16-year-old's titillating life.

"Herod is desperate to have her," says Margaret Medlyn, the soprano performing the role in the Opera Australia production opening tonight at the State Theatre.

"She plays him like a fish, but, because she is so young, she doesn't realise until the end what she has done," she says.

The singer sees the story as a tragedy and not because it results in John's execution.

"Her actions are a typical display of teenage wilfulness, but they go too far," she says.

The early furore was caused in part by Salome's demand that Herod bring her John the Baptist's head after she performs the dance of the seven veils for him. After trying to change her mind, Herod agrees, only to be revolted when she passionately kisses the dead lips.

The scene has always raised uncomfortable questions about the deep sensuality of the Christian tradition, not to mention the teenager's disregard for Christian morality.

"I'm a stage animal and I hate hanging around in the wings - I want to be on stage doing it."Margaret Medlyn, Salome.

"You have to feel sorry for her, and that's what we want the audience to feel," Medlyn says. "She is not intrinsically nasty."

To say she is looking forwards to the role is an understatement.

"It is perfect for me," she grins. "I'm a stage animal and I hate hanging around in the wings - I want to be on stage doing it."

That is exactly where Strauss places his heroine for the whole of the work including the dance segment. Strauss invented the dance of the seven veils, although Medlyn thinks he was inspired by belly dancing.

Unlike the production presented by St Petersburg's Kirov Opera at the 2001 Melbourne Festival, the singer will not be the one dropping the veils. Three male and three female dancers will disrobe as they perform around Salome. This is the way it was presented for most of the 20th century.

"You can be erotic without taking your clothes off," says Medlyn.

"In fact, that's more effective than naked pornography. And the music is sensuous enough in itself. It's like a magic-carpet ride."

She says the point of the dance is to show Herod what he might expect, not for Salome's own thrills.

One of the reasons that Medlyn, a New Zealander, is so excited at performing the opera is that it was one of her earliest stage appearances, when she appeared as a page.

But she could not have dreamed that she would one day appear in the lead role because her voice was a mezzo until the mid-'90s - lower and with a dark coloratura than her current soprano.

She had been working as a mezzo for 10 years when a London coach refused to work with her on a contracted role because she insisted she should be a soprano.

"I thought about it and eventually said why not," she says. But it remained a big risk, because it meant a loss of income while she re-trained her voice.

She and her husband considered the family finances and eventually decided to make the investment.

It also meant a complete change of repertoire after years of rehearsal and performance, bringing with it a personality overhaul.

It took two years before Medlyn was first cast as a soprano - Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovotore in Adelaide.

"It was a baptism of fire," Medlyn says, referring to the difficulties in the role. "Everyone thought I would fail, but I didn't."

She continued to be cast with her amazing voice. She describes it as having mezzo colour with the capacity to hit a top C.

But her voice kept changing and she sought advice from a coach in Germany who specialised in large voices. She learnt how to use her body to support her voice and also realised the importance of staying fit.

She played Helmwige in Wagner's Die Walkure at the Vienna Staatsoper and is waiting to hear if she has won the role of Salome there in a future production.

"I'm known as a singing actress and directors want me," she says.

But she is not interested in concentrating on the German repertoire of big-voiced heroines - roles associated with Wagner and Strauss. "I want to mix it up with the Italians, because that is the healthy thing to do with my voice," she says.

But she notes with regret that her mid-career change has meant that she has missed out on the Mozart roles available to younger sopranos. "I want to play interesting characters," she says. "I'm not very good as a reactive heroine hanging around the stage."

She is also unusual in that her career is concentrated on Australia and New Zealand from her family base in Wellington.

"I'm tied up here at least until 2005, but that's fine as long as it's interesting," she shrugs. "I'll stop as soon as it stops being interesting."

She is performing Il Trovotore for Opera Australia in Sydney next year and is keen to perform Strauss's Elektra eventually.

She predicts she would be "like a volcano" as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, and longs for the dramatic roles as the lead in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel.

"You have to be flexible," she says. "After all, your voice is just a muscle that you have to train in the right way."

Salome opens at the State Theatre tonight. Other performances are on November 26, December 2, 6 and 12.